Winter comes, brings with it delicious roadside cakes

Locals patiently wait for the mouth-watering cakes as a Marma woman prepares them at Upper-Parachhara area of Khagrachhari district town. PHOTO: STAR

With the onset of winter, women of Marma community start making traditional winter cakes and sell those at roadside and local bazar in different areas of the town.
At this time of the year, the venture brings smiles on their faces as they set up makeshift cake shops to earn some extra bucks.
One can find such shops Modhupur Bazar, Swanirbar Bazar, Tatultala Bazar, Upper-Parachhara Bazar, Switch Gate, Battala, Kalyanpur and Milanpur areas.
This winter around 40 makeshift shops have been set up in the areas. Over 100 women run these stalls which opens in the morning and closes after dusk everyday.  
During a recent visit to a few cake shops, this correspondent found the customers enjoying the delicious items served by the makers.
Krawshong Marma of Parachhara area said, she earns Tk 1000 to 1500 per day by selling cakes.
"I sell cakes at Tk 5-8 varying their qualities. The business has changed the lot of my six-member family", she said.
Natu Marma of Tatultala Bazar said the traditional cake making learned from elders in the family had turned into the only mean to feed her two kids and husband.
Echoing Natu, Krajory Marma of Modhupur area said, that she runs the trade for about four months from November.  
The demand for the cakes is increasing every season as the local restaurants and hotels now serve those to their customers, she said.
We make five kinds of cakes -- chasma, chihlamung, othremung, kadhmung and kangdhmung -- as they are very popular among the locals and tourists, said another cake maker.  
Binni paddy, coconut and sugarcane are the main materials for making the confection, they said.